Derech Lilit
Lilith is a complicated figure with a questionable history that may or may not predate Judaism, Christianity, the Book of Nod, and Caine himself, even according to Noddist lore. She speaks to the universal concepts of woman-as-mother, mother-as-survivor, and woman-as-catalyst both for all life as well as all evil. What’s more, she is probably real, though what she is and what that means is difficult to fathom. She is (or was) real, but that reality and the many faces attached toher name are impossible to fully reconcile. The oldest and most dedicated worshipers of Lilith claim their lineage traces back to her and her potent demonic magics stolen from the gods and brought to Earth. They reject the influence or the importance of Caine as the All-Father and point to historical texts as well as folktale cycles that suggest a pre-Abrahamic time when not all vampires were thought to be from one same progenitor. Alternatively, they look to times when there was something like the Caine myth, but Caine was a woman, or a pair of divine twins, or an angel, and so on. Many claim that their blood is the blood of demons, and that they were never totally human, even before the Embrace. Some even claim to have spontaneously become vampires without need of a sire, though none have proven (or attempted to prove) this to be true. Because her history (and how it coincides with Cainite history) is so conflicted, many of her worshipers have distilled these various stories down to core concepts that seem to apply universally to the many faces of the Dark Mother. They teach that the children of Lilith are forces of raw creation. Creation hurts, and any pain survived is a lesson that must be studied and celebrated. Those who create with pure abandon and celebrate the wet and fleshy acts of creation will invariably be betrayed by those too afraid or otherwise unable to create. This last point is especially important to the growing cult among the Bahari who converted from Cainite beliefs and feel a need to connect the Lilith of the Road to the Lilith mentioned in Noddist apocrypha. Nickname: Witches, Bahari, Lilins, Ki-sikil-lil-la-ke Ethics of Lilith: • Creation is vital, the act of creation is sacred, and like our Mother, you must create often and with daring and cunning. • Seduce Angels. • Creation is suffering, and the greater the creations, the greater the suffering. That suffering is valuable. • Life teaches through suffering. Be a teacher. • Creation is always an act of love and devotion. Be a lover. • Rather than learn, some will seek to destroy you and take what you have created for their own. Be a torturer. • Draw in the needy, those who have suffered enough to understand. Welcome them with passion and wisdom. • Cultivate a garden. Plant seeds and feed them with your blood and milk. Initiation: There are two ways to become a part of the Road of Lilith: by blood or by bleeding. Some souls, the Bahari claim, are marked as “other” by ancient demonic or celestial heritage. The Bahari claim that the auras of these special people possess small marks that only certain Bahari rites can reveal. The Bahari watch these people throughout their lives to see if they should ever enter a state of such intense suffering that they begin to see the truth, or create something so powerful that their ability to create should be preserved forever. Those without these marks are often called to Lilith’s faith by personal tragedy, shattering suffering, or a deep intellectual curiosity for the lessons only pain can teach. These people are marked by similar Bahari rites so that any Bahari can see these marks and observe them for the right time to approach. Organization: As a rule, there is no formal organization among the Bahari. Limitations, like the binding of Lilith’s hair, chafe members of this Road, and few are willing to create overarching hierarchies. Cults form, share myths and lessons they have earned, hurt each other, love each other, then break apart and reform elsewhere with other Bahari. Some cults with slightly variant philosophies are growing in popularity, but this is not widespread yet. People who are recognized as having learned great lessons (at great expense) or created great wonders may be greeted as “mother,” “grandmother,” “father,” and so on, but this is not a universally accepted practice. Rituals and Observances: The Bahari recognize planting and harvest time as significant, and they will often align acts of creation (and the occasionally necessary act of destruction) with these seasons. Further, Bahari will gather and ritually make love and physically wound and test each other’s limits. These ritualized sadistic acts are pale microcosms of the ultimate tests that life deals the celebrants, and is never meant to replace real learning. Aura: Carved and bleeding. A Bahari’s aura manifests as any other vampire’s might, though chunks and swirls may appear carved out of the whole. If one concentrates, they might think they see symbols in these shifting carvings, but can catch none of them. Further, the aura seems to bleed or drip, making the “carvings” appear more like wounds. Acts of creation receive the character’s aura modifier. Virtues: Conviction and Instincts HIERARCHY OF SINS AGAINST WHO YOU ARE Score Minimum Wrongdoing Rationale 10 Feeding immediately when hungry There is a lesson in every denial, and there is control in self-denial. 9 Joining a system created by those with no wisdom Live outside their lies. 8 Ignoring one of Lilith’s faces Wherever you go, the Dark Mother has left messages for you. Read their myths and show them where Lilith lives. 7 Rejecting the suffering of others or dismissing it Teach whenever the opportunity presents itself, even if you think the lessons learned would be beneath you. 6 Cruelty for its own sake As a teacher, you must craft your lessons. Petty abuses are beneath you. The pain you inflict must be divine. 5 Stealing great learning and claiming it as your own If you did not discover the wisdom yourself, you have no rights claiming it or authority based on it. 4 Destroying a thinking being They can neither learn from you nor teach you if they have been destroyed. 3 Not seeking out the teachings of Lilith Turn over the leaf, split the wood, and find her secrets wherever they hide. 2 Getting between someone and a valuable lesson Better to pull the stars from the heavens than to rob someone of moments of true gnosis. 1 Shunning pain The harder it is, the more rewarding the growth. Path of Thorns To those on the Path of Thorns, Lilith is a fantastic philosophical concept and her dogma makes sense on a purely academic level. She may be real, but that matters less than the grand experiment her philosophy suggests. The take their study of the faith very seriously, but ground it in the real world. Emotional hardships are fine and good, but the practical expression of physical pain can be studied and quantified, and that is far more interesting than subjective concepts of growth and torment. Hidden in the flesh is wisdom. Hidden in the mud is wisdom. Wisdom can be written down and taught as well as it can be tattooed on bare sensitive skin. The strangeness in the path comes from its relationship with alchemy. From alchemical research, the path rejects the idea that Caine or Lilith alone created vampires (and the truth), but rather were a unified force of creation. They also see the Second and Third Generations are a completely failed experiment, and that the Antediluvians should be destroyed simply to encourage the Mother/Father to start again from scratch. The Path is one of the more organized cults among the Bahari. They gather in secret once or twice a year in as great a number as they can manage. These meetings, or Sabbaths, are opportunities for the practitioners to test their physical and intellectual limits by exposing themselves to suffering, fire, and even sunlight to test their theories and prove their force of will. Additional Ethics of Thorns: • Wisdom alone does not suffice. Intelligence is also required. • Creation should be built on careful study. Raw creation is never as good as carefully crafted beauty or horror. • Do not seek students. They should come to you, destroyed and begging. Virtues: Conviction and Instinct HIERARCHY OF SINS AGAINST THORNS Score Minimum Wrongdoing 9 Joining any community of fools. 5 Accepting a student (formal or informal) the first time they come to you. 2 Putting the learning of another before your own. Path of Veils Lilith may have many faces, but none are so important in these dark nights as the face of the rebellious mother of monsters. The woman who toppled God’s bedchamber because she would be his equal. The one betrayed by Caine, who had her garden destroyed by the wretched offspring of the betrayer. These followers, often Embraced first into Cainite society, reject Caine and all that he stood for. They reject the heavy Judeo-Christian influences in the common Book of Nod and seek to slowly disrupt the entire system built on these lies. Lilith is a symbol of defiance and liberty, and those who follow the Path of Veils demand the same. Additional Ethics of Veils: • The Children of Caine will be punished for what they did in the Garden. • Show no mercy for those too ignorant to know the true story of Caine and our Dark Mother. • Destroy those who disseminate the lie, but make all efforts to never be caught in the act. Burn their books of lies. • You may forgive those who draped veils across the faces of Lilith’s murdered children, as she forgives them. Virtues: Conviction and Instinct HIERARCHY OF SINS AGAINST VEILS Score Minimum Wrongdoing 9 Accepting and abiding any law of Caine or God. 8 Failing to destroy the works of Noddist-liars. 4 Snuffing the spark of a candle that desires to burn brighter. Path of Making For those on the Path of Making, none of the stories of Lilith are as interesting or important as those stories where she stole the seed of angels (or was given it) and made a flood of monsters and demons over the vastness of Nod. They are fascinated by the incubi and succubi and how they blended with the children of Seth and the children of Caine. These Bahari seek out the lineages of Lilith to study what can be proven unique about these resilient humans with divine heritage. More than that, they seek to make monsters, as their Mother did. How they make monsters is a highly personal expression, and while they may exchange rotes and share religious rituals, each follower keeps her monster-making personal and unique. It is possible some practice Infernalism to make their children, while others carefully breed the lineages of humans with the most potential for the divine offspring, and still others steal the traditions of necromancers and witches in the hopes of using those to create their own beasts by magical means. Additional Ethics of Making: • Find and foster the greatest grandchildren of Lilith. • Teach them about the beauty of suffering she endured so that they might exist. Show them. • Make as she did. There is no difference between horrible and divine. Power and uniqueness as expressions of creative force is all that matters. • Destroying monsters and demons is no different from murdering infants and fawns, if not worse. Infants will only grow to be people. Monsters can become gods. Virtues: Conviction and Instinct HIERARCHY OF SINS AGAINST MAKING Score Minimum Wrongdoing 10 Rejecting the advances of demons with seed in hand. 7 Abandoning a thing because it is ugly or frightening. 5 Not taking a secret of making and creating from savages who don’t know the divine purpose behind it. 1 Rejecting the advances of angels with seed in hand. Category:Morality